COLLEGE BASKETBALL; 'Street Agent' Part of Inquiry Into St. John's

An investigator from the National Collegiate Athletic Association wants to talk about the St. John's basketball team with a New York City basketball enthusiast who was implicated in a recruiting scandal at Syracuse a decade ago that resulted in a two-year probation for the university's men's basketball team.

The enthusiast, Rob Johnson, said yesterday that he had spoken briefly with an N.C.A.A. investigator by phone, but declined her request for an interview. He also said he was unaware that St. John's guard Erick Barkley, or any other Red Storm player, had any improper contact with a sports agent or representatives of a sports agent. He acknowledged, however, that people associated with St. John's have accused him of playing a central role in events that led to the investigation of St. John's.

Two people associated with St. John's and the current investigation have identified Johnson as a ''street agent'' or ''runner'' for sports agents; they say it was Johnson who alerted the N.C.A.A. to alleged improprieties after he was spurned by Barkley.

Johnson approached Barkley offering substantial payments on behalf of an agent, Mitch Frankel, according to the two associates of the university. Frankel represents Ron Artest, a former St. John's star and a friend of Barkley's. When Barkley refused the offer, Johnson went to the N.C.A.A., according to those two people.

Johnson denied that he had ever been a runner or go-between for a sports agent. He also said he had not offered money to Barkley.

St. John's Coach Mike Jarvis warned his players before the season began to beware of Johnson, because he had been hanging around spring and summer tournaments in which St. John's players were active, according to the university associates.

''Somebody is trying to bring me into this when I'm an innocent party,'' Johnson said in a telephone interview.

In 1992, after a two-year investigation of the Syracuse athletic programs, an N.C.A.A. investigation determined that Johnson had had a 12-year relationship with the coaching staff of Syracuse's basketball team. The N.C.A.A. found Johnson was allowed to counsel players and had provided improper transportation, meals, lodging, game tickets and gifts to recruits.

As a result of these and other violations, Syracuse was banned from the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament after the 1992-93 season for one year and had scholarships and recruiting privileges reduced for two years. Many college and high school coaches, as well as Johnson, say he has long been a fixture on the New York City basketball scene.

An N.C.A.A. investigator was in New York on Monday and Tuesday, but did not interview anyone on the St. John's campus. On Saturday, after the Villanova game, Barkley acknowledged that the N.C.A.A. investigator he spoke with on Feb. 2 had also asked whether he had had any contact with sports agents or representatives of sports agents. The investigator also interviewed the team's senior co-captains, Lavor Postell and Bootsy Thornton.

The focus of the N.C.A.A. inquiry is whether Barkley and other Red Storm players received additional improper benefits. The N.C.A.A. is especially interested in the relationships St. John's players may have had with runners who closely follow the Riverside Church basketball program. They also are interested in who paid for Barkley to attend Maine Central Institute before he enrolled at St. John's.

This season the N.C.A.A. ruled that Oklahoma State's Andre Williams must sit out a year and pay $20,000 when it discovered his tuition at Maine Central Institute was paid by a third party -- the Kansas City, Mo., businessman Tom Grant, who is not an Oklahoma State alumnus or booster. Oklahoma State appealed the decision to the N.C.A.A. student-athlete reinstatement committee, which reduced the suspension to five games and ordered Williams to pay $5,000 over a four-year period.

It is possible the organization is examining the relationship between Ernie Lorch, the founder of the Riverside program, and Barkley, who along with many other city basketball players has played on his team. Lorch is frequently at St. John's home games, and he usually sits behind the team bench. A lawyer, Lorch has a track record of helping New York City youths beyond athletics.

Karl Henrickson, the coach of Maine Central Institute, said yesterday that the N.C.A.A. had not contacted his school in Pittsfield, Me. Henrickson was not a coach when Barkley was at the school. He said the school costs $23,500 a year, and it is a matter of school policy that nobody receives a full scholarship.

Henrickson said players paid from $4,000 to $23,000 a year, and the average player on his team this season paid half his tuition.

St. John's said yesterday that it had retained Bond, Schoeneck, & King of Overland Park, Kan., which specializes in N.C.A.A. matters.